A judge issued a preliminary decision that Motorola doesn't infringe three Apple patents

Apple is on the losing end of an initial ruling by the U.S. ITC (International Trade Commission) in the company’s battle with Motorola.

On Friday, an administrative law judge at the ITC made an initial determination that Motorola does not infringe claims in three Apple patents. The ITC took on the case in November after Apple asked it to forbid Motorola from importing certain phones to the U.S. that Apple alleged infringe the patents.

Apple declined to comment on the ruling. Motorola said it was pleased with judge's decision.

The ruling follows a win for Apple last month when the commission decided to block HTC from importing phones that infringe Apple patents. However, HTC said the ruling wouldn’t prevent it from importing phones into the U.S. because the company was able to remove technology from the phones so as not to infringe.

Motorola is also fighting in court with Microsoft over patents. The many legal disputes are taking a toll on Motorola. Last week the company issued preliminary financial results that were lower than expected. Motorola blamed the cost of patent lawsuits as well as increasing competition for the weak results.